It's hard to get into (for casual players)," he says."But that's not the reason they stay."They stay, he says, because of the people they socialize with."We attract a special kind of person because we have such a heavy emphasis on role play," he says.

Some bugchasers engage in the activity for the excitement and intimacy inherent in pursuing such a dangerous activity, but do not implicitly desire to contract HIV.

Some researchers suggest that the behavior may stem from a "resistance to dominant heterosexual norms and mores" due to a defensive response by gay men to repudiate stigmatization and rejection by society.